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eLetter Non

Gefördert durch den Publikationsfonds der Universität Kassel

Organic seed is vital for organic agriculture. However, organic plant breeding is not keeping pace with the increasing organic production, mainly because of a lack of sufficient financial resources. Therefore, the questions arose: what are the obstacles, and how can they be removed? An analysis of the situation in Europe revealed that royalties from intellectual property rights (IPRs) such as plant variety protection are inappropriate for organic seed. New additional financing strategies were developed based on the concept of seed as a commons, and the attitude of stakeholders in the food value chain towards an open source strategy was assessed. The conclusion is that dealing with seed as a commons is an indispensable feature of organic plant breeding. New financing strategies for this offer promising potential for organic plant breeding and an alternative to IPRs-based funding. It is essential to involve stakeholders along the entire value chain, including food consumers, in financing plant breeding. The successful introduction of a food label “open source and organic” could boost commons-based organic plant breeding financing. Generally, there is no single solution; the different strategies identified are complementary. Their validation requires further practical research and development.

Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) is influenced by diverse and complex factors, and therefore requires a holistic approach to agriculture and food systems plus integration of knowledge from diverse sources in science and society. Using the results of a colloquium held at the University of Hohenheim (Germany) in September 2016 leading up to the recent High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) Note on Critical and Emerging Issues for Food Security and Nutrition, this article underlines the role of research and innovation as a social and political process and draws attention to neglected types of knowledge. It illustrates the potential of knowledge co-production and co-innovation to transform food systems in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

his chapter presents key results obtained by the Joint Learning in and about Innovation Systems in African Agriculture (JOLISAA) team across its three target countries. It presents the approach used by JOLISAA for assessing innovation experiences and the diversity of experiences actually assessed. The chapter summarises the key insights into innovation processes gained from a cross-analysis of the case studies JOLISAA selected. It also provides lessons and recommendations about how best to assess and support innovation and make it more inclusive, with an emphasis on how to document and support local innovation. JOLISAA undertook its assessment in five major, partly overlapping phases: development of an analytical framework; inventory of innovation cases; collaborative case assessment; cross-analysis of cases; and development of policy recommendations. After the case assessments were completed, the cross-analysis was conducted at country level and across Benin, Kenya and South Africa.

Farmers' innovation and selection of barley varieties were studied in the Tigray Region in northern Ethiopia. Two districts each in the central and southern zones and three districts in the eastern zone of Tigray were randomly selected for this study, which sought to understand the current status of local barley varieties and to measure their relative preference by farmers. Household surveys were conducted covering 240 households to elicit farmers' views on the values, constraints, and opportunities of growing local varieties of barley. This was supported by focus-group and informal discussions with elders, key informants, and women's groups. Case studies were made of local farmers whom the community recognized as barley breeders. Twenty-four barley varieties and their major descriptors were recorded. Seed and varietal-selection criteria depended on the environmental and varietal characteristics. Investigation of intrahousehold decision making indicated that, while men tended to decide on the type of variety to grow, seed storage and processing were exclusively the responsibility of women. Farmers undertook preharvest and postharvest selection, giving emphasis mainly to earliness and spike characteristics. The distinct varietal-selection and seed-renewal procedures revealed their potential for use in further plant breeding. The case-study analysis of farmer-developed varieties provided knowledge that, if combined with scientists' knowledge, could lead to identification and development of valuable cultivars with a wide potential for use in semiarid areas of Tigray and other parts of Ethiopia.

The European-funded Framework Programme 7 project, Joint Learning in Innovation Systems in African Agriculture (JOLISAA), assessed agricultural innovation experiences focused on smallholders in Benin, Kenya, and South Africa. Fifty-six cases were characterized through review of grey literature and interviews with resource persons, according to a common analytical framework inspired by the innovation systems (IS) perspective. Thirteen of the cases were assessed in greater depth through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and multistakeholder workshops. The cases covered a wide diversity of experiences in terms of types, domains, scales, timelines, initiators of innovation and stakeholders involved. Findings revealed multiple triggers and drivers of innovation. For external stakeholders, key triggers included likelihood of offering a technological fix to an existing problem and availability of funding. For local people, access to input and output markets was a powerful trigger and driver. Market types and dynamics varied greatly. Developing functional value chains and accessing markets proved particularly challenging, especially for poorer and weakly organized farmers. Over long periods, determinants of innovation changed dynamically and often unpredictably, including motivations of key stakeholders, triggers, drivers and stakeholder arrangements. The direction of innovation evolved, often moving from a technology entry point to more organizational or institutional issues. A recurring challenge for fostering innovation is whether and how to build on local initiatives and knowledge, and how to sustain externally driven innovation processes beyond the project time frame. A major conclusion from JOLISAA is that innovation has to be seen as a continuously evolving process of ‘innovation bundles’ (a combination of different types of innovation) of various kinds, rather than as a pre-planned, and usually, narrowly-defined technical intervention. Consequently, open-ended, flexible approaches to innovation are needed with the potential to engage meaningfully over a long time with local stakeholders and bearers of local innovation dynamics, so that they take full charge of the innovation process and direction.